August 15, 2022

UfU criticizes funding cuts in the Berlin school construction offensive – a rethink is needed!

From the point of view of environmental associations, the Berlin school construction offensive is a program with considerable gaps. Nevertheless, renovations and the construction of new schools in Berlin are important. The fact that funding for the program is now being cut is another step in a chain of failures and poor planning.

 

Berlin not only needs new schools, existing schools also urgently need to be renovated. However, the program planned for this purpose, the Berlin school construction offensive, falls far short of the capital’s climate targets from a climate protection perspective. The current cut in funding for the program will further exacerbate this situation. UfU is calling for an urgent rethink, both in the school construction offensive and in the construction projects of Berlin schools that have already been approved for years. In August 2021, Berlin amended the Berlin Climate Protection and Energy Transition Act, making it one of the most ambitious climate protection laws in Germany. The targets will be drastically tightened and the specified timeframe significantly shortened. Among other things, new targets are also defined for compliance with KfW efficiency house standards for public buildings:

– Section 10 (1) EEC stipulates compliance with the KfW Efficiency House 40 standard for new public buildings.
– Section 10 (2) EEC stipulates compliance with the KfW Efficiency House 55 standard for major renovations of public buildings.

School buildings whose planning documents were approved before 01.01.2025 are exempt from these standards. The Berlin school construction offensive, the largest investment project of the last and current legislative period, is not affected by this law. As planning procedures and construction projects for the schools are applied for and approved years in advance, the projects in the school construction offensive remain unaffected by the above-mentioned KfW efficiency house standards. As a result, Berlin is literally building to low standards in contravention of the Climate Protection and Energy Transition Act. The current funding cuts will further exacerbate this problem: “The construction projects, which are already questionable from an environmental point of view, will not simply be canceled as a result of the funding cuts, but merely postponed. This means that school construction projects that are technically outdated will still be realized in Berlin in a few years’ time,” says Marlies Bock, Head of Energy Efficiency & Energy Transition at UfU. UfU is calling for an urgent rethink if Berlin does not want to fall behind in terms of building technology. It cannot be assumed that schools will be refurbished twice in a very short space of time. Building schools with old efficiency standards today will lead to the climate targets not being met. Instead, the projects that have already been approved must be updated with regard to the Climate Protection and Energy Transition Act and the urgently needed funds for the school construction offensive must be made available. Delaying the refurbishments, as is currently the case, will lead to an outdated building stock generating significantly higher energy consumption than would be necessary. UfU has already published studies and options for action in this regard.

The Independent Institute for Environmental Issues is a scientific institute and a citizens’ organization with the aim of analysing and promoting environmental policy developments in the new federal states in a citizen-oriented and time-critical manner. Further information on UfU can be found at https://www.ufu.de. The contact person for the Berlin school building campaign is Marlies Bock(marlies.bock@ufu.de).

UfU criticizes funding cuts in the Berlin school construction offensive (PDF)